Saks, Lord & Taylor May Soon Become Siblings

by William White | June 25, 2013 10:33 am

Saks (SKS[1]), the 94-year-old department store, may have a new owner soon.

Saks hired Goldman Sachs (GS[2]) last month to look into a possible sale of the company. Now, Lord & Taylor owner Richard A. Baker is looking to place a bid on Saks, which is one of his main competitors, according to The New York Times[3].

The purchase of Saks would go along with Baker’s previous purchases of Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay. Saks could be expanded into Canada, where Hudson’s Bay already has a strong foothold, and Hudson’s Bay could expand to the United States.

The NYT points out that Baker could also be looking at Saks from a real estate point of view. After his purchase of Hudson’s Bay, Baker then sold some of the rights to leases to Target (TGT[4]) in a $1.8 billion deal.

Baker already has a few Saks executives[5] in his ranks, including Hudson’s Bay’s Chief Operating Officer Donald Watros.